Project 49

The most well-known parts of Florida – Miami, the Everglades, the Florida Keys, Orlando, Disney World, the Kennedy Space Center – are in the southern, peninsular part of the state. In this trip, however, I stuck to the northern portion of the state: the ‘Florida panhandle‘. Entering the state from Alabama, I stayed one night in Pensacola, then moved on to Georgia.

Pensacola Beach (on the Gulf of Mexico)

"Dome of a Home", Pensacola Beach

The whole state of Florida is remarkably flat. The highest (natural) point in the state is at an elevation of only 345 feet (105 meters). (Several high-rise buildings elsewhere in the state rise higher than this.) For fun, I decided to visit this point, en route to Georgia.

The highest point in Florida!

I think he meant to write "Posted". Welcome to Florida...

Crossing the Mississippi River for the final time (on this outbound leg of the trip), I left New Orleans’ eastern suburbs and drove eastwards along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. I first passed briefly through Mississippi once again, and then Alabama. (Mississippi and Alabama each have very short coastal sections that you can drive through in about an hour.)

This was my third visit to Alabama. (I once attended a conference in Huntsville, in the northern part of the state; I had also passed through the Gulf region on another visit.) So I decided not to spend much time here this time (although I did stop for lunch at an excellent oyster restaurant in Mobile – the major city in this part of the state).

Downtown Mobile

Wintzell's Oyster House, Mobile